Torchwood – Children of Earth
I am a geek. I love all things scifi, excuse me, syfy. I have watched Dr. Who since I was 10 years old. I remember moving my turn dial controlled tv and adjusting the little turny knob behind it to better the reception so I could see a grainy Tom Baker and his long long scarf save the day. As such, I was thrilled when Dr. Who came back and even more so when Harkness <sp?> got his own gig. Love the character, love the concept, he’s a fact, simply brilliant.
I was equally thrilled when the five part mini-series debuted on BBC America. I watched every episode with my fiance. She is into it as well, though not a really a techy kinda gal. At any rate, and to cut to the meat of what I want to say, Torchwood – Children of Earth was, in a word, Dark. Terrible. Terrifying. Heart wrenching. Brilliant. Ok ok, 6 words. The point still stands, it was worth watching.
SPOILER ALERT – DO NOT READ BELOW IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE SHOW
Alright. Lets get to it. The maker of this show has balls the size of church bells (yes, i know thats stolen). How can you do what he did and not have ginormous balls. As I said, my fiance and I were watching this show together. On Sunday I couldn’t wait for her and watched the last two nights, day four and five. I was blown away. Frobisher. What a dynamic and tortured character. Could you do what he did? Would you? How could you not?
Only something so powerful as what the 456 were doing to kids could bring you to such a choice. Even then, it’s terrible. But what was even more terrible was that was the low point! Yes, this show, day five, had an even lower point to get to. Before I go there, I do have to say, what the hell was Jack thinking?
Ok, brilliant move with the secretary. I was clenching my fist and yelling “TORCHWOOD” when she gave her speech in the conference room. But then, what a piss poor showing. You walk in, strut your stuff, you’ve taken control, and you piss off the aliens and they kill your gay lover. What? Jack isn’t that stupid is he? I mean, he dealt with them before, he knew they had a virus, he knew it was deadly, why just walk in there with no ammo and empty threats about ‘all humans will die to defend their kids’. Pencil dick. I’d have released a virus too with that spiel.
So then what? Ianto dies, 30 other poor bastards die, and Jack gets sentimental. Good job torchwood! Way to show the Prime Minister how it’s done! I’m sorry, but folks that have dealt with that kind of thing time and time again, would know to be a bit more prepared before walking into the room with the alien and his crack child. But ok, I can cut them some slack on that one. We all make mistakes. What came next was both depressing and in a scary way all to real.
Frobisher. Poor bastard. This is where my fiance tapped out. I couldn’t let her watch it. She was already upset as all get out that the governments of the world would give up 35 million kids. I had to pause it (dvr FTW), and tell her what was coming up was really really sad. She asked me what happened and even said “he doesn’t kill his kids does he”. I looked at her and she said “he does?!??” That was it. She was done. If she couldn’t handle Frobisher, she couldn’t handle Jack and his grandson.
Which leads me to the end. Wow. Jack Harkness is, in a word, dynamic. I for one think it’s perfectly fine to run away to another star after killing your grandchild. I mean, you can’t eat a bullet, you can’t slit the wrists, what the fuck do you do? Only so much vodka and scotch you can drink before you sober up, you have an indestructible liver, and face what you did. He had to do it of course. Minutes to go. 35 million future crack babies. What do you do? Well if you are a fixed point in space and time, you off your grand kid and say goodbye to your daughter, that’s what.
Still, I feel bad for Jack. Yes, he’s immortal. But that only means he gets to watch everyone he loves die. The bit with Ianto, ’you’ll forget me in 1000 years’, was terrible. Terribly good I mean. And on some level, very true. Jack really was never meant to live forever. A stupid mistake by a blond chick from London. He was meant to die by a Dalek gun. Shove a bomb in his gut and he grows back (that was wicked cool).
At the end of the day. I thought Torchwood took it to another level. In true BSG style, they didn’t stick to some silly touchy feel good ending. They showed it how it can be some days. Tough, gritty, real. And that’s just every day life. Add drugged up aliens and it’s down right painful. I’m already chomping at the bit to see where the show goes next.
And to all the die hard fans, what’s with UNIT coming back into the picture? Haven’t seen them this involved since the old days!
